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An Obol for Charon
' |image= |series= |production= |producer(s)= |story=Jordon Nardin, Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts |script=Alan B. McElroy (as Alan McElroy) and Andrew Colville |director=Lee Rose |imdbref=tt8201650 |guests=Tig Notaro as Jett Reno, Rebecca Romijn as Una, Rachael Ancheril as Nhan, Bahia Watson as May Ahearn, Hannah Cheesman as Lt. Cmdr. Airiam, Emily Coutts as Lt. Keyla Detmer, Patrick Kwok-Choon as Lt. Gen Rhys, Oyin Oladejo as Lt. Joann Owosekun, Ronnie Rowe Jr. as Lt. R.A. Bryce, Julianne Grossman as Discovery Computer, Raven Dauda as Dr. Tracy Pollard and David Benjamin Tomlinson as Linus |previous_production=Point of Light |next_production=Saints of Imperfection |episode=DSC S02E04 |airdate= 7 February 2019 |previous_release=Point of Light |next_release=Saints of Imperfection |story_date(s)=1834.2512 (2257) |previous_story=Point of Light |next_story=Saints of Imperfection }} Summary "Number One", Captain Pike's first officer, arrives from the still inoperative Enterprise and hints at inconsistencies in the files about Spock. Pike continues the pursuit of Spock's shuttle, which is about to leave the sensor range. Suddenly the warp field breaks down, and the Discovery faces a huge sphere composed of organic and anorganic matter. The ship is caught in a stasis field and the universal translator gets infected with a computer virus, turning the communication on the bridge into a Babylonian chaos. The polyglot Saru temporarily activates a backup system but the virus begins to affect other systems as well. In engineering, Reno is about to support Stamets and Tilly, when an electromagnetic discharge sets the organism known as "May" free. "May" attaches itself to Tilly's body yet again. In the presence of the sphere Saru sees flashes of UV light, a sign that he has entered the vahar'ai, the final stage of his life. Saru and Burnham develop "digital antibodies" to slow down the virus in the Discovery's systems, but the ship is running out of time since Spock's shuttle is at the edge of the sensor range. Pike wants to break free using photon torpedoes, but Saru feels that the sphere is dying and actually wants to establish "last contact". So Pike agrees to stand down and wait for a transmission from the sphere. The sphere sends the data and finally explodes, but not before reversing the polarity of the stasis field to allow the Discovery to escape. In engineering, Stamets and Reno work on a way to let "May" speak through Tilly, using a makeshift cortical implant. "May" says that she is a member of the jahSepp, a species native to the mycelial network and that their realm is threatened by an alien intruder. She identifies Stamets, who repeatedly navigated the ship through the network, as the intruder. After Reno has freed Tilly of "May", the entity transforms herself into some sort of cocoon that completely envelops Tilly. Saru goes to his quarters to die, accompanied only by Burnham. He asks her to cut off his threat ganglia to end the suffering. When she finally agrees, the ganglia fall of by themselves. Saru lives, now without the fear that was apparently induced by these organs. He calls the whole idea of the "Great Balance" on his home planet Kaminar a lie. In the meantime, the Discovery is on a pursuit course for Spock's shuttle again, thanks to sensor data obtained from the sphere. Errors and Explanations Character error # When Lt. Gen Rhys talks about the energy buildup from the sphere, he tells "10.000 degrees Kelvin", and a few seconds later, "20.000 degrees Kelvin". He shouldn't use the word "degree" but simply state "10.000 Kelvin" and "20.000 Kelvin". This could be done to ensure the readings are recorded in relation to temperature, as opposed to another scale which, in other languages, uses a word similar to Kelvin. Plot holes # When the universal translator begins to malfunction it causes everyone to speak in different languages. However, it would be quite likely that many members of the crew would be able to speak the same language and therefore would not need to rely on the universal translator to understand one another. There is certainly no reason why Pike would think Burnham was speaking Klingon, as both of them can speak English. This could be another symptom of the glitch with the computer system! EAS Continuity # The holographic communicators on the Enterprise are going to be replaced after the cascade failure, according to "Number One". Pike says he never liked them because "they looked too much like ghosts". It is obvious that the abolishment of holographic communication in favor of "primitive" viewscreens is a further attempt to fix the so far disregarded continuity with the pre-existing Star Trek. Perhaps the holographic communicators are having too much of a negative effect on the other systems. # The apparent fact that the spore drive damages the mycelial network readily serves as an excuse why it wouldn't ever be used again (in another sledgehammer approach to repair the continuity). But it definitely doesn't explain why it would never even be mentioned again, especially in hundreds of cases where the network may be responsible for a spacial or temporal phenomenon. Maybe all records to the technology were destroyed, and those in the know sworn to secrecy, possibly after the formulation of a plausible cover story. Nitpicking # Why does the transporter operator of the Discovery refer to it as a "teleporter"? This could be an alternative description. # After the failure of the universal translator on the bridge, wouldn't it have been the first option to turn the universal translator completely off, so that at least the English speaking crew members could talk to each other again? Or is the universal translator an inseparable component (which I would rate as dangerous)? Considering that the crew members notice themselves that they speak a foreign language, does the translator tap directly into their brains and control their voices? Wouldn't that drive everyone mad, even under normal circumstances, when talking to people in a different language? The UT could be too well integrated into the communication systems for complete deactivation. Nit Central # Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Wednesday, February 13, 2019 - 11:24 am: Losing Spock's shuttle warp signature should not have been such a problem. They knew its course, they could have extrapolated its trajectory and recovered the signature by moving toward its expected location. Assuming the shuttle didn’t changer course without the change being noticed. # Discovery could track Spock's shuttle because Number One had given its warp signature to Pike, a signature she had "acquired" from Starfleet. Which means Starfleet also knew it, so why weren't THEY sending a ship after Spock? Either they didn’t have another ship to spare, or thought it wasn’t necessary due to Discovery being n the area. TV Tropes Headscratchers # How is it that Saru realised only now that the Kelpien death ritual is a lie? When Starfleet took him in, as soon as he learned what their advanced technology can do, shouldn't he have figured out that the Ba'ul are also aliens who use similar technology to harvest them? The Kelpians already knew that the Ba'ul were space travelers. Nothing about Starfleet picking Saru up changed what he knew of his people. He had no reason to believe the condition was anything less than genuine because he had seen or at least heard how others had suffered from the advanced stages of it. No one had ever let it run its course like with him. Note also that Saru had the process initiate prematurely, and stated such. If Kelpians can normally expect when the process will happen and prepare for it, then it would likely be rare that the process would go on without intervention. Also, look at it from the Kelpian point of view: if the process is part of aging, then it would only normally happen to the older Kelpians, and likely not those in their physical prime. And what happens if the process happens without intervention? A Kelpian loses the sense of fear they have for their entire lives, and thus would likely be more willing to engage in risky behaviour, which to a "normal" Kelpian would seem insane. Consider what happened to Saru when he temporarily lost his fear in "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum"; from Burnham's point of view, he started acting deranged. To a Kelpian, it would likely have seemed even worse. Thus, they'd have every reason to prepare for a peaceful death instead of going dangerously bonkers. # Okay, I get that Saru is able to understand everyone, while the UT is on the fritz. But how are they understanding him? Wouldn't his speech be as unintelligible as everyone else's? It's almost as if the UT doesn't bother translate his speech, while translating the others'. Do they actually understand him? Only Michael and Saru had a brief conversation, then Saru switched to the backup UT and things were fine and dandy again. Michael could easily have just been guessing based on Saru's tone and inflection what he said. (Or he's responding in English). # Captain Pike explains that he doesn't like the new-fashioned hologram communication technology, which is why he had removed from the Enterprise, so the ship now uses only viewscreens for visual communication. This is clearly the writers' attempt to explain away the fact that hologram communication is shown to be used in Discovery, even though we don't see it in The Original Series. But this scene actually makes the Continuity Snarl worse, since it establishes hologram communication is commonplace in the 23rd century, which only raises more questions. For example, even if the Enterprise doesn't use holograms because of Pike's preference, why is the technology missing from other TOS era Starfleet ships? And why doesn't the Enterprise-D still have holocommunication a century later? Why does Benjamin Sisko consider it to be a new thing, if the Starfleet has had the technology for over a 100 years? Pike becomes a Fleet Captain in a few years, maybe he orders this to be part of standard design across the fleet - if a piece of tech was vulnerable enough to cripple a state of the art starship like the Enterprise, it's a liability. Better to downgrade to more reliable tech than risk the ship being rendered powerless while out exploring strange new worlds on the edges of the Federation. Also, it's entirely possible, based on later events in "Project Daedalus," where holograms are established to have been used to frame Spock for murder AND have been used by Control to fake the admirals at 31 headquarters giving orders, holograms face a serious stigma and Starfleet and the Federation opt to downgrade, this time for the sake of security - sure, video transmissions can still be faked, but the fingerprints are easier to find on those records. Given that the Federation still has genetic engineering outlawed on the basis of Khan, from a time before the Federation was founded, it's not out of the question to see the Federation be so opposed to certain tech for centuries after a single serious abuse. Category:EpisodesCategory:Discovery